Can i get my money back from my life insurance?

Question

my wife and i have been paying for life insurance for about 9 years now. the broker explained that it is what is called whole life insurance and that you would only pay for 10 years. recently we find out that it could be as much as 14 years. is there a way we could take our money back and cancel the insurance. we fill been cheated and want to cancel the insurance.

please suggest

Answer 1

A whole life insurance policy has a cash option or cash value at maturity. Your policy can also provide you cash if you wish to cancel before full maturity however it will provide much less due to penalty for canceling before full maturity.

Answer 2

What reasons did you buy the life insurance for? If those reasons are still valid, then keep the coverage. Dividend scales usually reduce the premiums in the later years of the policy, but dividends aren't guaranteed, and the legnth of time varies by each company. Sounds like you probably have enough cash to take a loan if you need some money, but if you surrender the policy you will lose on the investment. Keep it, and be glad you have the peace of mind if the unthinkable happens, such as your passing away.

Answer 3

As far as getting your money back (refund) that probably will not happen.  Most insurance companies have a 30 day or even a 45 day free look period, following state laws.  What that means to you; is the time you have to look over the policy make changes, cancel it or get your money back.  Almost like returning a product to a retail store.  

Regardless of the terms in your state, I'm sure after 9 years you are well past this free look period.

The good news is it is a whole life policy, which means it builds cash value.  There is money sitting there inside the policy almost like a savings account.  

You have two options if you want to get that money in the policy. The first is to cancel the policy and take the money.  You can do this at anytime you want you don't have to wait until the policy is paid up.  The second option is to take a loan on the policy, in this case the coverage will still continue but you'll still have to pay premium payments and you'll be charged an interest on the loan.  Don't worry, the interest will get charged against the cash value!!  

If either of these options sound good to you all you have to do is call the insurance company and tell them what you want to do.

Depending on the type of the policy you have may determine which is the best decision for you to make as far as getting the money or keeping coverage.  Look in the policy to see what type it is.  Look for words like universal life, UL, paid up, life pay, LP and some number.  this info should be in the first few pages.  Then get the advise from a good honest agent as to what is your best interest.

Answer 4

My neighbor sold me a whole life policy that I thought he told me would be paid up in something like 5 or 10 years.  But when I got the policy it looked like it would actually be paid up in more like 50 yrs (age 90).  I kept it for quite a few years since the insurance company sold and raised the policy limit at no extra cost.  They were paying 6% on the cash value, which wasn't too bad considering stock markets at times.  But I wanted to buy a home, so I cashed it out (surrendered it) in 2002 to make up enough down payment on a home to not have to pay PMI.

In 2005 surrendered another smaller policy I had since childhood that was converted to whole life sometime in my 20's, because at that point the cost of insurance was increasing relative to the amount going towards cash value.  Also my 401(k) was coming along nicely and I wanted to pay off some bills and start a Roth IRA.

If you have had the policy for 9 years, I assume it paid off your agent's commission and has built some cash value (surrender value).  You will not get your premiums back, but could get the cash value (there might be tax on a portion of it).  But it depends what other savings you have and whether you need the insurance to protect dependents.

Answer 5

As a general rule, if you cancel the policy, then you will receive whatever cash value has built up in the policy.  You should be able to call the insurance company directly and get them to send you an updated cash surrender value amount.  

You will not be able to get your premiums back at this point.  Your only recourse would be to take the broker to court if you feel that he intentionally mislead you on purpose just to sell you the policy.   You could also try to take the insurance company to court if you feel that they were responsible for misleading you.

Answer 6

Yes, well, there's no GUARANTEE that you only pay for 10 years, and there's no GUARANTEE that you only pay for 14 years.  The way it works, is you're OVERPAYING, and hoping that the interest from the overpayment will EVENTUALLY cover the base premiums.

It's not guaranteed.  

You haven't been cheated.  You just didn't understand what you were buying.  

Yes, you can cancel the insurance, and you'll get back whatever the "surrender value" is.  It's usually about 10% of what you've paid in.  Otherwise, if this product isn't meeting your goals, you're throwing good money after bad.  

Set the goal first.  THEN select the product to acheive the goal.  If the goal is paid up insurance - buy a "paid up insurance" policy.  GUARANTEED.  You pay one premium up front, and never pay again.

Answer 7

I wouldn't listen to the broker. I would call the company instead and get the real facts. Your broker wants you to keep doing business with him so that he can continue to be paid commissions off your premiums. He doesn't care about your finances.

Since you have whole life insurance you had it for 9 years, you are probably going to get very little money back. You have to read your policy and examine the statements. The amount of money you will get back will be determined by the current amount of cash value you have in the policy and the amount of surrender charges that will be applied on the cash value.

But no matter what the amount is, you should first decide if you still need life insurance now. If you were to die, would your family be financially ok? If not, then you might want to try to qualify for term insurance before cancelling your whole life insurance. If you do qualify for term insurance, then you should go ahead and cancel your whole life. Then you should invest the difference into mutual funds.

Answer 8

if you have a binding contract or something, sue them.

or if u don't want to sue, then... no u can't.

maybe try talking to the insurence company?